John Okulick at Nancy Hoffman Gallery

JOHN OKULICK
March 18 - April 18, 2006

John Okulick, The Origin of All Things Natural,
2006, aluminum and reisn, 72 x 74 x 15 inches

Two years ago, John Okulick--who has long been known for his illusionistic sculptures in wood and more recently in aluminum--went through a major shift in his work when he added resin as a primary material. This material first appeared as an accent and contrast. It added a spot of color, transparency and translucency to a network of wood or aluminum shapes.

The introduction of a new, reflective and translucent material opened possibilities for the artist, the opportunity to include representational forms in his sculpture. He started by casting resin sticks, relating to the wooden sticks he had used in his work in the ‘70s. He put the sticks together, creating nests, sleds, mini-mounts of brilliant fuchsia pink sticks on top of which he perched a bird or a bear or a deer, cast in resin in a golden or black color.

John Okulick, Imaginary Friend, 2006,
aluminum and reisn, 40 x 44 x 7 inches

John Okulick, Three Fingered Pixel, 2006,
aluminum, resin, painted wood, 31 x 32 x 4 inches

Simultaneously, Okulick began a group of tableaux sculptures incorporating three elements: a bird, an aluminum easel, and a drawing--all by the artist. The birds perch precariously on a shelf gazing at a drawing, a watercolor, or a manipulated digital image of the world, a spider, and outer space. One senses yearning, irony, and impossibility as the birds become viewers of the galaxies, and we, the viewers, become voyeurs of a mise-en-scene orchestrated by the artist.

In Okulick’s newest wall sculptures, resin joins aluminum in a powerful way. Okulick builds his sculptures architecturally, starting with a strong aluminum support and layering on top of this support. Between these layers he injects elements that have movement and meaning, thinking of these elements as “explosions.” In front of the sculpture might be a three-dimensional standing man, or a three-dimensional blackbird, looking at the viewer or looking into the sculpture. No longer filled with illusion, the artist addresses the subjects of viewing, movement, layering, nature, order in chaos, underlying social references to man’s effect and impact on nature in his large abstract pieces offering a rich range of surface and texture that is varied, adventuresome and new.

John Okulick, Bird Call, 2006,
aluminum, resin, wood, 69 x 78 x 8 inches

John Okulick’s work has been exhibited widely in this country, at the Albuquerque Museum of Art, New Mexico; The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; California Art Center, Pasadena; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Hawaii; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Jewish Museum, San Francisco; Laguna Beach Museum of Art, California; La Jolla Museum of Art, California; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, California; The Oakland Museum, California; Palm Springs Desert Museum, California; Riverside Art Museum, California; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; San Diego Museum of Art, California; The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, among others; and abroad at La Foret Museum, Tokyo and Nagoya City Museum, Nagoya, Japan.

John Okulick, Veil of Science, 2006,
aluminum and plexiglass, 70x 73 x 4 inches

John Okulick's work is represented in many major public collections, among them The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Memphis Museum of Art, Tennessee; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California; The Oakland Museum, California; Palm Springs Desert Museum, California; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond and abroad at Il Museo delle Ceramiche Grazia, Deruta, Italy and Power Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Sydney, Australia.

John Okulick, Doorway to Chaos, 2006,
aluminum and resin, 62 x 54 x 10 inches

John Okulick's work has been commissioned for the California Science Center, Los Angeles; Capitol Area East End Complex, Sacramento; Challengers Boys ands Girls Club of Los Angeles; Chatsworth Metrolink Station, Los Angeles County Transportation Authority; Culver City Police Department; Culver City Storage Facility; Homestead Village, Brea; Los Angeles Harbor Building, World Port Los Angeles, International Center, San Pedro; Los Angeles World Airport Terminal 3; California; Palisades Branch Library, Pacific Palisades; The Ronald Reagan State Building, Los Angeles; Valley Transportation Authority, Milpitas; Van Nuys State Office Building, all in California; McCormick Convention Complex Collection, Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, Chicago, Illinois and City of Reno, Regional Transportation Office and Conference Center, Nevada.

John Okulick, Fox and the Crow, 2006,
aluminum, resin, duratans print, 54 x 37 x 4 inches

Beavers and the Bird

John Okulick, Beaver and the Birds, 2006, aluminum, resin, duratans print, 52 x 35 x 3 inches

John Okulick, Deer Head, 2006,
aluminum and resin, 72 x 25 x 22 inches

John Okulick, Bird Man, 2006,
aluminum and resin, 27 x 25 x 22 inches